Character in need of advice

[amike]

I'm incredibly fortunate to have been invited into a game that was already  6 sessions in and was given a character that had been orphaned by a player, due to the vagaries of magic and the kind of things that happen when one keeps getting annihilated by beholders and such the character is now a cold subtype fey dryad, thought the character had 7 levels it was split into 4 classes 2 of which it's  no longer eligible for so I had to pick 2 new classes and keep 2 of the original ones (the campaign is so awesome and sprawling that it should be a novel) however to do certain things in the campaign 1 of the new classes had to be atleast one level of Druid, so the character is a 4 class multi-class who is a not very powerful ranger. Looking for items/ideas that would work well with dryad and/or cold subtype. Also the campaign has an series of incredible mysteries embedded into it so anything that would help with improving chances to discover/notice/understand the clues and hints from the DM. So-
How can I be a better ranger/Dryad?
How can I best make use of the cold subtype?
Is there anything that would enhance the advantages of being a dryad?
What would be a good weapon to duel wield (yeah I know but a very high Dex makes it not so bad) and enchant with "thrower" so it will come back and still be available to melee with ?
Other than "Manual of Gainful Exercises" (or something like that) is there anything that would give permanent bumps to core stats? Other than Dex everything is pretty low.
Any items or ideas to make the character better at noticing or finding things?
The DM will allow things from other sources as long as it doesn't break the game and I can come up with a good explanation for my character having it, he does however accept the "I paid a powerful wizard we know to make it for me" as an explanation.
Will be grateful for any advice, really want to be better able to contribute to the party, thanks.

[ketaro]

"How can I best make use of the cold subtype?"

All I got is the Final Strike feat from Savage Species.
It holds a special place in my heart

[X-Codes]

What exact classes do you have?

The Algid Enhancement spell in Frostburn is a big thing for cold subtype creatures.

Enhancing your Dryad abilities is generally only feasible through increasing your Wisdom.

Dual wielding is bad.

Were your stats not adjusted for your new racial mods?  Dryads get +8 Dex, +4 Int, +4 Wis, +8 Cha.  The Wisdom and Charisma bonuses in particular are good for Clerical casting if you can somehow manage it.  Maybe instead of Druid see if you DM will let you be a Cleric with the Plant domain and go into Holt Warden if necessary.  That's quite a bit of plantiness and also gives you access to Algid Enhancement without need for DM Fiat.  Anyway, permanent adjustments to stats are rare, and if you go for the spellcasting then they're really not necessary.

Also, best tools for learning or finding stuff are divinations.  If you stick with Druid, some good, low-level ones are Forest Eyes and Linked Perception.  Proper knowledge-gathering divinations are more the realm of Clerics and Wizards, however.

[linklord231]

If you have to change some of your classes, can you change all of them?  Druid is pretty much strictly superior to almost anything - a straight Druid Dryad (which is coincidentally fun to say) would be pretty good.  Especially if your DM didn't saddle you with the downsides of being a Dryad, namely the racial hit dice and tree dependency. 

[Unbeliever]

Druid has the benefit of being thematically very Dryadic, so that's nice, too.  You might also be able to swing a dip into Sacred Exorcist somehow or even just tip to get Turn Undead, as X-Codes notes. 

I don't know how much flex you've got in altering the character.  And, I don't know what power level you're building to.  But, here are ideas I think that fit thematically and are reasonably competent, in addition to straight Druid (always good and has a lot of bredth): 

• Wildshape Ranger:  to stay thematic, get either plant forms (MoMF, though there might be some other way) or Frozen Wild Shape.  This depends on the answer X-Codes' question regarding your stats.
• Swift Hunter:  always a decent way to rehabilitate Ranger.  And, I think there's the feat in Dragon Magic that would let you turn your skirmish damage into cold damage.  That's usually kind of a bad deal, but (a) it's thematic and (b) you might get your DM to rule that the elemental damage doesn't have the same restrictions as precision damage -- you're trading one set of headaches for another.  That's how I rule it, but I might be uncommonly generous. 
• Dragonfire Inspiration:  along the same lines, you could go DFI or DFI BardBlade or something like that.

There are a few other options, too.  Totemist comes to mind as a possibility. 

Looking over it, though, I just think that there's too much going on in the concept right now and too little info.  We'd need to know how being a Dryad is being played, and also a lot depends on how much you want to play up cold or trees or both.  Predictably, Druid, perhaps with a prestige class or feats to emphasize the cold, gives you the most coverage conceptually. 

[kitep]

I think it's web only, but do you know about Acorn of Far Travel?  It's a druid spell that allows a dryad to be away from her tree for days at a time.

[amike]

Thank you all for your replies. 1st level Smart, 2nd & 3rd level Fast, 4 of Ranger and 1 of Druid, 8th level total and just got leveled up to 9.
 I should have mentioned that it's 3.5 edition, didn't get the bonuses, but didn't the draw backs either, no tree and nothing has ever been mentioned about the short lifespan of dryads either, got the spells from Monster Manual for Dryads and get the hit die from whatever class I take.
 Can't change the first 3 levels as those were locked in by the events of the story.  Further, due to a special homebrew power set with progression had to take atleast one rank in a list of classes, Paladin, Cleric, Something additional (I think) and Druid, think that they are all divine linked as is the special homebrew that the DM created. But since in the strangeness that happened in getting changed into a dryad with cold type (from pile of ash, so good trade) I lost all Knowledge of Religion and Arcana I was told that the classes (other than the first 3 levels which were from D20 Modern) that the character had were temporarily blocked  (Paladin and Cleric) for a few levels. Basically the DM let me redo the character, and it seems like he did that to let me make it into my character. Playing it as he's a partial amnesiac, doesn't remember the parts of his past that have to do with magic or religion, helps that as a the player I don't know any of the things that happened before I joined, mainly as a human who is now in an awesome body that is predisposed to being cheerful, mischievous and horny (a mix of how the MM and Greek mythology depicts them). Currently he's resisting the horniness by focusing on being mischievous towards the most annoying member of the party. Want to focus more on his being more and more of a dryad who has cold powers and as part of Nature cold is a fairly destructive power, less and less of a human who's been changed. Picked favored enemy undead, and if I take another level of Ranger I can pick another favored enemy and specify the main race of the Big Bad, but like I said, looking for advice as to what will be best. Hope this helps and thanks for bearing with me.

[linklord231]

See if you can trade all the Ranger levels for more Druid.  Take Beckon the Frozen and Frozen Wild Shape from Frostburn.  If you started as human, you should still have one more feat to play with, which you will be using on Natural Spell so you can still cast while wildshaped into a 6-headed Cryohydra.  For future feats, I'd go with Power Attack, and Extend Spell.   

What are you Smart and Fast talents?

[phaedrusxy]

If you can't swap out your levels... I might recommend something that I'd probably never suggest under any other circumstances... You might start leveling as a Blighter. See if the DM will let your innate spell-like abilities qualify for the spellcasting part, and convert the Blightfire to cold damage instead.

Blighter is a fast progression casting class. So by 17th level, you'll actually "catch up" with a druid and get 9th level spells (assuming your Wisdom is high enough for a 9th level bonus spell).

[linklord231]

Blighter is largely unsuitable for PC use (even ignoring how bad it is normally) because they can't prepare spells in areas with only sparse vegetation, such as most dungeons.

[amike]

Smart and Fast are D20 Modern classes.

[phaedrusxy]

Blighter is largely unsuitable for PC use (even ignoring how bad it is normally) because they can't prepare spells in areas with only sparse vegetation, such as most dungeons.

Meh. In over 20 years of gaming, I think I could count the number of times this would have mattered in campaigns I've been in (on both sides of the screen) on one hand. I wouldn't play it in a WLD game, but for most other games it should be fine.